Workshops & Presentations

Workshops and Presentations

Crafting Freedom In-School

Now, selected “Crafting Freedom” presentations can be incorporated into your school’s staff development program. Stay tuned – more Crafting Freedom presentations will be added for Black History Month - 2008!

Presentations: (See attached price list)

Who Was Thomas Day?
Interactive slide-lecture -- 1 hour (1 presenter)
With a Lesson Plan demo’d and provided to participants -- 1.5 hours (1 presenter)
Who Was Thomas Day with Traditional Furniture-Making Demonstration
2.5 hours (2 presenters)
Thomas Day, Elizabeth Keckly & The Free Black Connection
Interactive slide-lecture -- 1 hour (1 presenter)
With dramatization of Elizabeth Keckly’s letter w/ interactive activity and/or with dramatic portrayal of Thomas Day’s letter and interactive activity -- 2 hours (3 presenters)
Teaching with Pieces of the Past: Artifacts, Antiques, n’ Stuff
Interactive slide-lecture -- 1 hour (1 presenter)
Growing Up in Sharecropping
Living History Slide Presentation -- 1 hour (1 presenter)
Exploring the World of Thomas Day,
Interactive Multimedia CD-ROM – The Most Award Winning Black History Game in History! ( price negotiable) -- 1.5 hour min. demonstration (1 presenter) ( the school must purchase individual CD-ROMs for teachers or a Lab License or other license)
The Thomas Day Furniture Kit: Furniture as History, Furniture as Art, Furniture as Culture (Price negotiable, must purchase at least one set of Thomas Day Kit materials) -- 3 hour min. demonstration (4 people)

PRICE LIST

(Schools or school systems within the Carolinas, Virginia or D.C. )

1 hour presentation -- $400.00
2 X 1 hour presentations (same site, same day) -- 600.00
1.5 hour presentations -- 500.00
2 X 1.5 hour presentations (same site, same day) -- 750.00

For presentations with multiple presenters add $250 for each additional presenter.

Note: Crafting Freedom In-School is currently offered within the Carolinas and Virginia. If you’d like to discuss bringing Crafting Freedom to your state, contact us at: (919) 405-2326 or e-mail us at tdek07@aol.com

2007 Crafting Freedom Institute
Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckly: Black Artisans, Entrepreneurs, and Artists in the Making of America 1800-1865
July 12 - July 23, 2007
Durham, NC
Click Here to Learn More!

PAST WORKSHOPS & PRESENTATIONS HOSTED BY THE THOMAS DAY EDUCATION PROJECT

"Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day & Elizabeth Keckly,
Black Artisans and Entrepreneurs in the Making of America," Workshops 2004 - 2006

About Crafting Freedom Workshops

"Crafting Freedom" is a Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop funded by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to the North Carolina Museum of History/Dept. of Cultural Resources for the Thomas Day Education Project (TDEP). TDEP will provide 100 K-12 educators selected from a pool of national applicants with the opportunity to engage in a 5-day, residential, expenses-paid, intensive-study of African American history, while providing them with direct experiences in the interpretation of significant historical sites and the use of archival and other primary historical evidence.

The Landmark Workshops are designed to present the best available scholarship on a specific landmark or related cluster of landmarks, while enabling them to gain a sense of the importance of historical places, to make connections between the content of the workshops and what they teach, and to develop enhanced teaching materials for their classrooms.

The "Crafting Freedom" workshops focus on three landmarks in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. They are: the Union Tavern, the Burwell School, and the Historic Stagville Plantation. The Union Tavern, in the town of Milton, NC, was the home and shop of the free black cabinetmaker, Thomas Day (1801-ca.1860) from 1848 until his death. It is currently undergoing restoration. The Burwell School in historic Hillsborough, the colonial capital, was the girlhood home of Elizabeth Keckly (1817-1907), the most important black woman in the clothing industry before the Civil War. Stagville Plantation was a major tobacco plantation in North Carolina and features numerous examples of African-American artisanship. The North Carolina Museum of History (NCMH) is where many of the lectures and seminars will take place. The museum has state-of-the-art educational facilities and houses the largest collection of Thomas Day furniture in the world as well as other examples of black artisanship.
Image Gallery of Site

Sept 2004 Let it Shine in Detroit TDEP coordinators met with Detroit K-12 educators who have participated in TDEP workshops to investigate opportunities for TDEP in the "motor city" and services the "Let It Shine" network may be able to provide both K-12 teachers and museum educators. The meeting was hosted by Malcolm X Academy, an elementary school in the Detroit inner city. 100% of Detroit teachers who participated in "Let It Shine" and "Crafting Freedom" workshops were in attendance!

The Let It Shine Fellows Forum has been opened to participants in the Crafting Freedom 2004 workshops. The forum is a moderated discussion board hosted by Yahoo e-groups. To join now, go to http://www.thomasday.net/talkshop/ If a new member, please read through prior posts to get the flavor of the content and discussion. Your lesson plans can be shared through this forum.. This board belongs to the participants in the "Let It Shine" and "Crafting Freedom" workshops only. The TDEP Forum Moderator monitors the discussion and will intervene if an authorized person uses this board.

April 16-18, 2004 Let It Shine Gulf States members from Lake Charles, LA, Baton Rouge, LA, and Mobile. AL met with Let It Shine Coordinator, Lisa Randle, to work on their curriculum projects. Many thanks to the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation which provided van transportation and tours of local African American sites in the Cane River region.

February 19-21, "NC Social Studies Conference, Topic: "Exploring Race and Culture: Teaching Historical Thinking with Interactive Media." Four Seasons convention center*,Greensboro, NC.

February 1, 2004 Let It Shine, South Atlantic Teacher Network Meeting, Charleston, SC. Teachers from VA, NC, SC, and GA who are members of the "Let It Shine" network will meet to collaborate on original curricula and instructional projects they have in progress. Subjects include: The History and Culture of Rice Cultivation in South Carolina; An Interdisciplinary Resource on the Sea Islands of GA and SC; Creating a School-Based Archive on Black Education Before Segregation in Martinsville, VA ; and Developing a Student Produced Historical Documentary on Thomas Day.

January 31, 2004 "Teaching with the Furniture Kit," at the College of Charleston, SC. This is a one day professional development opportunity for 33 selected K-12 teachers in the Charleston area. Teams from each school will receive the interdisciplinary resource developed by TDEP master teachers called the "Thomas Day Furniture Kit." This opportunity was generously funded by the Chipstone Foundation of Milwaukee, WI and the Humanities Council of South Carolina. Each participating school will receive a kit valued at $300+. Hosts for the event are the School of Education at the College of Charleston and the Avery Institute, an African American research center.

Other Workshops and Professional Development Offerings.

Since 1997, the TDEP has worked primarily with teachers of history, language arts, and visual arts. Outstanding scholars in African-American history and culture have also been brought in to share cutting-edge, research-based knowledge with the teachers. Teacher-scholar collaborations have been fostered that have resulted in the creation of a variety of interdisciplinary, standards-based instructional materials. These classroom-tested instructional products enable African-American history to be integrated across the curriculum and to "come alive" for students.

Current professional offerings include:

The Let It Shine Teacher Support Network for sharing best practices and materials with K-12 educators.
Teacher-Led Workshops on best practices and TDEP created resources including the CD, Exploring the World of Thomas Day and The Thomas Day Furniture Kit.
Self Guided Study Course on African American history
Packaged and Customized Scholar-led seminars for teachers
Staff Development Programming

If you would like to talk about having us present at your school, school district, or at a conference, please contact us